


The Deal

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [132]
Category: Jacksepticeye Power Hour (Web Series), Markiplier TV (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series), natewantstobattle fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Cover Art, Demon witness protection, Demus Fluff, Footnotes, M/M, Magic, Nate’s in hot water, Remus being a gremlin, Roman has been getting clingy, but Logan deserves it, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29845818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: A New deck of cards into Egoton and the storm starts rolling in.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton, Bingiplier/Googleplier (Markiplier TV), Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Series: Masks and Maladies [132]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 11
Kudos: 10





	1. Burn

**Author's Note:**

> In Poker the “burn” is when you discard the top card before each better round.  
> Also I have the arc cover and it’s not the best but I’m happy with how it turned out, hoping to get covers for all the arcs now and to go back and do that arcs I’ve already done. After that I might do some individual short covers in the style of comic books. Example, this would be issue number: 132.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mare literally takes Nate’s body for a run all over town. No one is happy.

Both Nate and Mare had been on edge all night. Ever since Logan had been taken to the hospital, Mare had been racing around town.

Any time he suspected there was someone following him, he left the area and kept running until he felt he was safe.

It had been three hours and Nate was sober again, and had a migraine but Mare didn’t care, he was too suspicious and too spooked to want to go back to the house.

_“We could go back to the base,”_ Nate reminded.

_“Don’t trust the heroes,”_ Mare denied.

_“Come on dude,”_ Nate complained, _“I’m hungry, and tired. We need to stop.”_

_“You can sleep, I got the body,”_ Mare offered.

_“I’m not clocking out, I trust you but not that much,”_ Nate argued, trying to surge to the front.

During the argument, a magical arrow shot out and almost hit Mare in the head. Both host and demon startled, cursing as a single hunter closed in with their staff raised at them.

“Dammit Nate, stop running I wanna talk,” the hunter shouted.

“Taylor, fuck off!” Nate shouted. “I’m not stopping so you can shoot me in the head!”

“That was a stun spell and you know it,” Taylor shouted as they kept chasing the singer. “I wouldn’t have to stun you if you had slowed down.”

The next stun bolt hit its mark and Nate’s feet locked up. Between Nate and Mare’s auras it wouldn’t last for long but when the hunter pointed the staff at him it was clear that it didn’t need to last long.

“I’m alone, I’m not bringing you in,” Taylor promised.

“Why in my right mind should I believe you?” Mare growled, trying to throw the spell off and stand.

The hunter spun the staff around and pointed the base of the pole at Nate, a silent offer. “Because you’ve been harboring that demon bastard for this long and it hasn’t caused trouble yet. So either you really do have the situation under control, or we haven’t spoken to Nate even once since you got into contact with us.”

Nate finally got back in control and got up on shakily legs. “ _Ugghhh,_ I could use a burger and a nap.”

“I’ve got orders to bring you in, but I’ll just say I lost you. I’m pretty sure they’re watching your place,” the hunter reported.

“I figured,” Nate groaned, rubbing at his eyes. He looked away, “Which town are we in?”

“The English one,” Taylor answered.

“Brighton, okay,” Nate started walking towards the base. “Maybe I can find Logic and patch things up, he looked pretty pissed.”

“I’ll head back, try to stay out of trouble,” the hunter told him and they disappeared in the night. Nate headed back to the base with Mare still playing passenger.


	2. Dealer’s Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes to stay alive, you have to make a deal. The heroes just didn’t expect for this person to make a deal with them.

The heroes saw him coming before he was even down the block. Jackie rushed out to meet him.

“Hey Nate, man, yah [1] okay in there?” Jackie asked.

“My mouth tastes awful and I have a hangover,” Nate grumbled. “But I’m fine.”

“Let’s get inside,” Jackie offered.

Nate pulled back a bit, tapping at his temple, “I’ve got a passenger, Mare’s in here with me.”

“Yah [1] need him out?” The speedster offered.

“No,” Nate answered, uneasy. “I was thinking he could come in with me. He promises to stay in my head and you guys can cuff me to Marvin if you need to. We’ve got a bit of a deal going on.”

Jackie just studied him for a bit and Nate wished, not for the first time, that the other heroes didn’t have to wear masks because he couldn’t see all of the speedster’s reaction.

“What’s the deal?” Jackie asked, starting to look around as if he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye.

Before Nate could answer he was tugged into the garage and Jackie closed the doors. “He’s been in here b’fore a couple times, it should be fine. So what was the deal, yah don’t make deals with’em unless yah wanna get fooked.” [2]

“I know, I know,” Nate groaned. “I wouldn’t have made it unless I got more out of it. So you know how some demons don’t physically feed off people, they kinda feed off their emotions?”

“Does Mare do that?” Jackie asked. “I know Anti feeds off fear, he’s just gotta [3] kill a couple people ta [4] get what he wants.”

“Mare needs large groups of people to feed from, which is why he likes to hang around me in the first place,” Nate explained. “He doesn’t even need to touch people, he just needs to be in the area. So the deal is, he stays out of trouble and he gets a more concentrated dose. One of my shows can set him up for a couple months. That tour I took is going to keep him good for a year.”

“An’ yer okay with that?” [5] Jackie asked.

Nate nodded, “Yeah, I am.”

“So long as he keeps his hands ta [4] himself,” Jackie warned, “I think we can convince the others. Outta [6] all the demons we’ve dealt with over the years Mare’s probably given us the least problems.”

The Jackie paused, motioning to lead, “Well, guess that’s not true anymore, but Lunky’s been givin’ him a run fer his money.” [7]

“Who’s Lunky?” Nate asked in confusion.

“Oh you’ve missed one hell’uva [8] week,” Jackie smiled. “So King had a kid, one bouncin’ baby demon, an’ that kid is hell ta babysit.” [9]

“King had a kid, with who?” Nate stopped to ask, Mare was feeling antsy.

“One ‘a the Jims stabbed him with a soul splitter an’ now the kid’s been scratchin’ up the walls like a deranged cat,” [10] Jackie summarized.

Nate had a thousand questions but decided to go to sleep first. He woke up to his mouth tasting and feeling even more like sawdust.

When he woke up he grabbed something to eat and drink, and a coffee. Then he started wandering around for Bing, looking for his and Oliver’s workshop. Nate figured he should tell everyone on security about Mare.

To his surprise he saw the two androids talking with Logan, Roman was sitting in a chair next to him, looking bored and tired.

“Well it won’t work now, unless we can find some work around we’ll probably have ta [4] bench you,” Bing reported.

Logan groaned, “I wonder at this point if that’s even necessary, most of Dark’s network has already seen my face.”

“Suit did more than protect your identity, dude,” Bing reminded.

“I appreciate your concern, however,” Logan began to refute, then he noticed Nate opening the door. “Oh, Nathan, you’re awake.”

“Yeah,” Nate said, “you doing better?”

“I am,” Logan paused, “adequate.”

__ _ Bullshit, _ Nate thought but kept that to himself. “You said it was fine.”

Logan sighed, dragging a hand over his face, “I know, I can barely remember anything from last night. My suit won’t even function again. I don’t know what came over me and for that I am truly sorry.”

“Are you actually okay with it, or not?” Nate asked. “I just don’t like that this thing has its claws snuck into you.”

“Objectively you are correct,” Logan agreed, moving his glasses farther up his nose. “I should not be fixated on some camera.”

“But perhaps Logic has some insight the heroes should heed.”

“Fuck!” Nate jumped at the voice suddenly right behind him.

The Host was standing barely five feet behind him. “Yes, the camera is cursed. Yes, Logic is disproportionately obsessed in the camera. However the camera is safer in the hero’s base.”

“I am not obsessed,” Logan defended as Nate rolled his eyes.

“Kinda are, dear nerdy,” Roman countered, making Logan sputter in defense. That brought a small smile back to his face

“Fine,” Nate decided. “Got my dog and some things I need to grab at my place anyways. We can put it under glass and I’ll tell you what I know about it.”

“That is very agreeable,” Logan was quick to agree and followed Nate out. Roman quickly followed after them, eager to keep Logan in his sight. The trio picked up Patton on their way out, Virgil still sleepy from the long hospital trip that had drained him physically and mentally.

The four heroes made sure not to suit up when they carefully walked out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Accessibility Translations  
> 1\. You  
> 2\. He’s been in here before a couple times, it should be fine. So what was the deal, you don’t make deals with them unless you want to get fucked.  
> 3\. got to  
> 4\. to  
> 5\. And you’re okay with that?  
> 6\. Out of  
> 7\. Well, guess that’s not true anymore, but Lunky’s been giving him a run for his money.  
> 8\. hell of a week  
> 9\. So King had a kid, one bouncing baby demon, and that kid is hell to babysit.  
> 10\. One of the Jims stabbed him with a soul splitter and now the kid’s been scratching up the walls like a deranged cat


	3. A Spade’s a Spade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nate and some of the Light Sides go to retrieve Logan’s camera.

Nate and Logan made up the lion’s share of the conversation as they took Logan’s car. He did his best to answer the logical Side’s questions. Roman and Patton occasionally chimed in with questions of their own.

“It’s a soul splitter but it doesn’t work,” Nate had initially explained. “Probably because it’s Wil’s. I’ve never heard of a soul splitter not making demons but apparently, with Wil’s magic, bullshit is always possible.”

“None of us are demons,” Roman reminded. “If I was a demon, I would know.”

“Exactly, you would know,” Nate agreed. “Or you’d at least pass the aura test and Marvin conducted one on Virgil months ago. Either you’re all the weirdest demons I’ve ever seen, or you’re just perfectly weird humans.”

“We’re obviously humans,” Logan summarized. He was driving, so he had to keep his eyes on the road.

“Yeah, so as long as we keep it away from the other demons in the city, that apparently don’t live in the base already — I can’t believe King had a kid — it should be more than alright to keep it in the base.”

“Lunky’s so adorable,” Patton smiled.

“They eat glass,” Logan reminded.

“Least I know why Mare didn’t want to get near the base, that kid eats demon aura, they freak Mare out,” Nate commented.

“Really, that’s fascinating,” Logan commented. “Is it an issue of territory?”

“No, Lunky is to Mare, what Bim is to us,” Nate answered. “Spawnlings eat their weight in aura. Mare will probably be leery of being alone with Lunky for another two months.”

Silence crashed down in the car.

Logan didn’t quiet have the words to voice his thoughts. When he did he said, “That . . . is that what he’s doing?”

“Bim?” Nate asked. “Yeah, different demons collect aura differently. Bim just decided his way of collecting aura was by physically eating it.”

Then they reached Nathan’s neighborhood and even before Logan pulled off to a stop, they knew something was wrong.

The door was wide open.

“Shit!” Nate jumped out of the car the instant he could. “My dog.”

Logan was slower to respond and Roman pulled out his sword.

The heroes carefully stepped into the house. Nate was relieved to find his dog in his kennel.

“Did anyone hurt you?” Nate asked as he looked the dog over.

“Was it the hunters?” Patton asked.

“Probably,” Nate said and looked in a drawer to find a stack of magic books. “Maybe?”

Then he went to a separate drawer and found all of his supplies still there, “No. They haven’t been here yet.”

Logan looked around and saw all of Nate’s musical equipment and game consoles still in the house and unmoved. “Who breaks in and takes nothing of value?”

Nate thought for a second and went up to his office to find that something had been taken. On a small table was a broken protection circle. He called back down the stairs, “The camera’s gone!”

“What?” Logan demanded.

Nate checked through the top floor again, “It’s the only thing taken.”

“You were targeted,” Logan realized. “My outburst outside the bar may have contributed to that.”

“The Host must have known,” Nate guessed. “I wouldn’t have come back home for another couple hours if he hadn’t said something.”

“Is there any way to track it?” Logan asked.

“I need time to get enough residual energy to pick up a trail, hopefully there’s enough of that left,” Nate said.

“Maybe that snake took it,” Roman suggested.

“Now kiddo, we shouldn’t just go around accusing people,” Patton replied.

“But we should rule him out,” Logan realized, recalling that Janus had threatened to steal and destroy it several times.

Patton sighed in disappointment, and they finished locking up and Nate fed his dog before they left. Nate gathered the materials to perform the spell as they drove over to the Sides’ home and Logan rushed into the house. He found Janus and Remus packing up their stuff into boxes.

“ _Ahhh,_ Logan,” Janus greeted. “Just in time for the good news. We found a nice place out on the outskirts of town. Tell Virgil I am taking my Chicago record player back. No, he can not debate me on this.”

Remus poked his head out from a large box with a smile on his face, “I’m going to get to go skinny dipping with the gators.”

Janus rolled his eyes, packing up the box with Remus inside of it, but not taping it shut. “Yes, yes, just make sure you do it at night.”

“That is amazing and we advocate you finding your own place,” Logan started. “But have you seen the camera?”

“Which camera?” Janus asked, his tone guarded.

“Thomas’s,” Logan qualified.

There was a disgusted groan that came from Janus, he already turned away to start packing something else, “Logan, I have not seen that wretched thing since you brought it to your base. And if I ever see it again, it will be too soon.”

“Swear to me that you have not seen it,” Logan demanded quietly.

Janus made a scoff but when he saw Logan’s face he paused and put down what he was working on to take off his right glove off of his more human hand and raise it up, looking Logan dead in the eye, “Logan, I swear on Thomas’s good name that I have not seen it. I did not take it.”

“Alright,” Logan nodded.

“Alright!” Remus burst out of the box, extending out his arms.

“If I help you find the blasted thing will you let the matter rest?” Janus offered.

“I was not expecting your assistance but that would be appreciated,” Logan said.

“Good, now let me finish up here and make sure Remus doesn’t eat any packing peanuts and I’ll help you look.” Janus dismissed.

“Too late, snack mamba,” Remus winked and immediately coughed up a packing peanut.

Janus rolled his eyes, “Go, I’ll be along shortly.”

Logan thanked him again and left with his group to start the search, on the lookout for any hunters.  
  


By the time Janus got out of the house, he almost debated not going to even look for it. Hoping that Logan had already found it.

He was poking around and asking some of his contacts, using the cover that Remus wanted a new rare trinket to destroy. So far he wasn’t having any luck.

Then he got a text from Logan: _“Meet me by Helyx Bridge. Urgent.”_

Janus quickly left the dive bar and headed for the location. Thankfully it wasn’t that far away.

Close to the bridge was Logan, facing off against a couple hunters. One of them was already knocked out while two of them were encroaching on the logical Side.

“Logic!” Janus called out, running over to him, when he was close enough he whipped out his shepherd’s staff and struck one of the hunters in the head. The hunter dropped to the ground and Logan dispatched the third.

“How fortuitous,” Logan commented, taking a second or two to catch his breath. “Were you following me?”

“No, I was merely in the area,” Janus confessed, watching Logan turn around and pick something up.

It was the camera.

“You found it,” Janus studied the camera for a bit. It seemed to be in the same condition as the last time Janus saw it.

“Yes, you must have come to a deal with Dark because he simply gave it to me,” Logan told him.

“Oh?” Janus managed. Something about that statement seemed off, he didn’t know what it was, but there was something . . . false about that statement.

“Yes,” Logan started walking towards the hero’s base and Janus followed him. “We can finally be done with this mess. This never should have been left at the base but if we must keep it there at least it will be safe with the Host.”

The two decided to leave before more hunters showed up

Janus kept Logan talking, being put more at ease the longer he did so. This was Logan, so what if he wasn’t completely truthful with the manner he procured the camera? That was none of Janus’ business.

They stopped right outside the Sides’ home. Janus happy to be leaving the place if Logan was bringing the camera back in.

Logan reached into his pocket, and Janus noticed the new wrist communicator on the logical Side’s wrist. The screen was thin and in the shape of a black spade symbol.

“New tech?” Janus could help but ask.

“Oh yes,” Logan answered, a slight smile on his face.

_. . . Lies . . ._

“I see,” Janus could help but respond, “your design?”

“No, Bing’s,” Logan’s smile widened as he started to draw on the camera.

_Lies._

“My old suit was having some problems so I decided to try something else,” Logan continued to explain.

_L I E S_

With that lie, Janus finally saw little holes in what he was fairly certain was in illusion. Or at least the illusion was dangerously strong or aided by something else because Janus couldn’t see through it.

Then Janus actually saw what Logan was doing with the camera, what he was drawing on it, and it was the final nail in the coffin.

Those were magical spells, he was laying a spell on that camera. Right where Janus could plainly see and with no attempt to keep him from seeing it.

Even if Logan knew what sigils to place and how to use them, they wouldn’t do anything without magic.

This wasn’t Logan! It wasn’t him! Logan couldn’t do magic, he was the only Side who couldn’t.

“Why don’t you let me hold it,” Janus offered, trying to sound as calm as possible. “We can head back to the others together.”

The imposter let out Logan’s throaty chuckle as he calmly capped the pen and looked at the deceitful Side. “You know Janus, everytime I leave you be, you never cease to amaze me. So, here’s how this is going to go—”

Logan was frustrated as they kept walking around. He was flanked on either side by Nate and Patton. Roman at the rear of the group to keep an eye out for hunters.

“We’ll find it,” Patton tried to offer confidently.

“It has been three hours,” Logan reminded morosely.

“I’ll have Mare keep an ear to the ground if someone tries to pawn it off,” Nate decided.

“That’s not the part that worries me,” Logan grumbled. “Nothing else was taken, whoever stole it wanted that camera for what it was, not what it was worth.”

Then Logan’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see it was a message from Janus: _“I found the camera. Meet me outside of your base.”_

“It’s Deceit, he found it,” Logan announced.

“Really?” Patton let out a sigh of relief. “That’s so good.”

“Let’s get to the base before he breaks it,” Logan insisted, taking off in a sprint. “If he hasn’t already.”

When they got to the base, Janus was leaning against the closest street lamp to the base. In his hands was the camera. He spared them a quick glance. “I don’t know what’s worse: the sheer incompetence of how this thing disappeared or you leaving it in the storage room to begin with.”

Then he held it out and Logan accepted it quietly. He, mostly by luck rather than fate, noticed that the Side was wearing a wrist-communicator with a large blade spade-shaped screen.

“Now if my good deed for the day is done, I’ll be off,” Janus walked away, heading down the street and eventually turning out of view.

Logan waited an extra second, before holding it out to Nate, “Is this the same camera?”

Nate took it for a couple seconds, before passing it back, “Feels like it. I didn’t draw these symbols though.”

“What do they do?” Logan studied them.

“It’s a really high level containment spell, if anything was awake in there, it’s asleep now. The only thing that could probably wake it up is if we cracked the camera open.”

“I don’t understand,” Patton interjected. “Is there something wrong?”

“Something’s always wrong with him,” Roman added.

“I didn’t tell Deceit _how_ exactly I had lost the camera. Only that it was taken by Nate in the base. Did you, Ro, or Virge tell him?”

“No,” Patton frowned. “At least, I didn’t.”

“I would never tell that jerk anything,” Roman defended. “And Virgil would never.”

“We should get this inside,” Nate interrupted.

Logan stopped, taking a deep calming breath, “You’re right, let’s go.”

The heroes rushed into the base to place the camera in lock up. Nate had one key, and Logan had the other so they could both access the camera anytime they needed or wanted to. Then the Light Sides, Virgil tagging along this time, rushed back to their home.

Only to find Janus, Remus, and all of the two Sides’ things gone from the apartment. Only a little bit of a mess, a couple flat boxes, and spare packing peanuts left in their wake.

And Logan failed to locate them for the rest of the day afterwards, realizing too late they didn’t even have the Dark Sides’ new address to track them down.

On the swampy outskirts of Gainesville stood a run down house that had been almost completely abandoned because it was said to be haunted.

Which was exactly why Deceit and the Duke had managed buy the property in the first place.

Deceit, or at least someone that looked like him, walked down the overgrown driveway with Janus’s shepherd’s crook in one hand and Remus’s octopus belt buckle in the other. He was humming a tune to himself. The instant he was through the front door and closed it, his wrist watch vibrated and instantly Deceit’s image blinked out of existence and there stood a figure in a full black suit, covered head to toe. A silvery-brass emblem of a spade on his chest.

The Spade walked past all the boxes of Janus and Remus’s belongings before he headed to a closet that led to a small elevator and took it down to a room a floor down. A workshop had been hastily assembled in the space and Spade placed the staff and the buckle in a magically warded case. The instant the case door was closed a force banged on the glass, as if trying to get out.

“Don’t worry, Janus, I won’t leave you in there forever, after all,” Spade smiled, his voice heavily distorted by a voice box, “we have work to do.”


End file.
